Operations
Autofocus: Pentax W60
The Olympus Stylus 1050 SW comes with iESP and spot autofocus modes along with its face detection function. The Pentax also has face detection with multi, spot, and tracking autofocus modes. Both cameras take more time than one would hope to focus on subjects; the Olympus takes markedly longer.
Neither autofocus system is stellar in low light; they eventually focus with the help of assist illuminators, but they take their good old time. The Olympus still takes a fraction of a second longer.
Both cameras have a macro focus mode, but the one on the Pentax W60 can focus the closest. The Olympus can focus as close as 2.8 inches, but the Pentax can focus to within one inch. That is evident in the underwater videos we took of hermit crabs that were just a few inches from the cameras. The Pentax kept the crabs in clear focus, but the Olympus left the video blurry.
Playback Functions: Olympus 1050 SW
Both of these digital cameras aim to be convenient in picture-taking and in post-production. Both of them have large LCD screens with wide viewing angles so that photographers can show off pictures and slide shows to their friends easily. They are also made to output pictures straight to the printer – no Photoshop needed. Both cameras pack in plenty of editing features in the playback mode so you can directly print or upload to a blog from the camera.
The Pentax W60 comes with digital shake reduction, resizing, cropping, rotation, digital filters, frames, red-eye compensation, and voice memos. There are dozens and dozens of frames including Halloween-themed frames and animals that place your picture in the mouth. The frames are incredibly tacky, but would make interesting birthday cards for five-year-olds.
The Olympus 1050 SW comes with cropping, resizing, color editing (similar to the digital filters on the Pentax), printable calendar layouts, and a “perfect fix” feature that fixes lighting and red eyes. The perfect fix wasn’t quite perfect; it improved the lighting, but didn’t eliminate red eyes all the time.
The most useful editing feature was Olympus’ perfect fix – even if it didn’t work just right – because many of the indoor shots needed a little help in the lighting department. The Pentax had a larger amount of editing features, but most were kitschy and probably won’t be used very often.
